Category Archives: Misc Papercraft

It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since I’ve posted something! lol! Let’s hope this year is better for all of us! To help get it started off right, today’s post is going to be a bit different from my usual crafting posts. This past May I made some adjustments to my diet that helped me lose 40 pounds in four months. Then life’s circumstances kept me from sticking to it for the past three months. Fortunately, despite that, I’m only up 2 pounds. Now that life has calmed down some, I’m ready to knuckle down and lose the last bit of my excess baggage. Since I know many of you are trying to be good, too, I thought I’d share a fun diet tip with you. I know, using “diet” and “fun” in the same sentence is a major juxtaposition, but you’ll see what I mean soon enough.

Disclaimer: this post is in no way to be considered medical information and you should consult your doctor before following any dieting advice. (Although this is very true, you’re going to chuckle when you see what that advice is!)

If you’re like me, you might have grown up around folks who always kept a candy jar on hand ‘for company.’ I loved visiting family members that had those jars when I was a kid and now I keep one myself – only it somehow seems to run out of chocolates more often than I have company to share it! So I made up a sign to put on the candy jars.

Before I show it to you, I will preface this with a disclaimer… For those of you that know me as a Bible Study teacher, know that I work hard to make sure that what I teach is accurate and never taken out of context. This, however, is most definitely taken out of context and is totally just for fun, ok?! So here’s the sign (from above)…

Just in case you don’t have your Bible handy, here is what Colossians 2:21 says:

“Do not handle, nor taste, nor touch”

Hahahaha! A dainty reminder of a stern order. Of course, this was not originally intended to keep one away from chocolates, but it sure does make me smile! I did it in ombre red to subliminally indicate STOP.

If this makes you smile, too, and you want to use it but don’t have the gumption to letter your own sign, nor to use Paint Shop or another program to make up your own sign, I’ve created a free .jpg digi you are welcome to save and print out for your personal use. All I ask is that if you post it on your blog or on social media, please link back to this blog post, ok? Thanks! Come back here and leave me a comment if you do and I’ll try to visit your post. Have fun!

Today’s whim is to show you this cute calendar I made for my Neuro-immune doc. She just beat cancer herself, but still gets fatigued. She also tends to many patients with ME/CFS and FM, so I thought this calendar would be fun and encouraging for her and her paitents…

Didja notice she’s got an uphill climb?! Here’s a close-up of some of the bling…

Right now, with these headaches, I’m the chic that’s hit the wall… if I were able to catch a ride on a giant snail, I’d probably throw up my arms and shout ‘wheee!!’ and feel like I was riding a super fast rollercoaster! Lol!

LOL! (for my foreign readers, a raspberry can also mean and expression of disapproval by sticking out one’s tongue and blowing out air to make a vibrating sound) Last week was the week of giant berries:

Now, ‘them’s the berries!!”

Just look at those berries compared to the normal sized berries in the middle! Amazing! And they were sweet, too!! A foretaste of paradise!

So, yeah, as most of you know health-wise, this was a bad year – not to mention the hurricane. It culminated with a severe migraine that started November 30 and has yet to go away over 4 weeks later. Ugh! The longest I’ve ever had one was my very first one which lasted 6 weeks. I’m hoping that I’m NOT going for a record! Needless to say, I got much less crafting done this year. I’ve been putting this post together in stages for several days now in those brief moments of semi-lucidity. ; )

Despite everything that was going on, I was able to make 86 posts this year. This blog had 2612 visitors (including you 63 faithful followers) from 57 countries who left 832 kind comments. Thank you all for your support!!

I was thrilled to have the honor of being a guest designer for the CropStop blog a couple of times this year:

I was also delighted to be invited to be a guest designer for the MarkerPOP! challenge blog with this card:

These were the most visited blog posts this past year (in order and not necessarily posted this year – interesting!) – if you missed any of them, just click on the picture to be taken to the original post:

These were this year’s posts that elicited the most comments, in order (click on any picture if you want to go see the original post for more details):

Here are the top nine from Instagram (the ones that got the most ‘likes):

Thanks to the 210 followers and others who left over 3000 ‘likes’ on my 103 Instagram posts!

Let’s hope that 2018 is a better year for us all! I hope to catch up on several things that I didn’t get to post this year, including a DIY photo light box and some beaded tie chains. Plus, I have some craft storage ideas, including a DIY jewelry case. I’m hoping my health will let me be a little more regular in posting and in crafting wherever the whim takes me! Thanks for accompanying me on this journey!! See you next year.

~D.Ann

.

p.s. any ads on this page are placed by WordPress and are not endorsed by me.

As you probably know, it’s also time for the winter Coffee Lovers Hop. Winter in Florida doesn’t mean snow, it just means different flowers and perhaps a few more hot beverages, but there are enough warm days for a nice cold frap, too! There is the RARE frost this far south, so I really frosted everything up on this.

That frosting goes well with MarkerPoP’s day 10 theme: Sparkle. I love the various sparkling products used, like the Stickles on the cups and feathers, the Extreme Peacock embossing powder on the feathers and the copper glitter paste on the stenciled background. The flowers have Flower Soft centers

That fab musicalbutterfly just sparkles and shines! You can’t hardly tell in the pics, but a layer of Glossy Accents over the fraps looks just like the plastic cups they come in.

Even the whipped topping on the fraps have some frosty sparkle in them!

Welcome back for the final day of the Cat Lovers Hop! I can’t believe it’s almost over!

I have another 2018 calendar for you. (I can’t believe 2017 is almost over, either!) This one features Graphic 45’s fabulous Raining Cats and Dogs collection

I know I said pigment inks are the best for these ‘boards’ however, I will say I had an extra tough time getting this shiny gold ink to dry (Teresa Collins Glitz Gold by Color Box). I also realize I didn’t get a picture of the shine, and now it’s gone on to its new home. I let it sit overnight, and thought it was dry, but I was still getting smudge marks when I touched it and had to use a heat setting tool on it. Just FYI.

I took my flower shaping tools and, after fussy cutting the flowers, umbrella cat head, and arm with the puppy (a LOT of fussy cutting, but worth it!), I put them all on some soft foam and gave them some dimension by rolling the tools across the back side of the images.Then I adhered them to the page – sometimes with foam backing to keep them popped up – for some added dimension.

I prefer mixing the colors of the microbeads for a more natural look, don’t you?

I’m entering this in the Cat Lovers Hop… click HERE for more information as to how you can join the fun.

Don’t forget that the special discount bundle at Frantic Stamper from THIS post is only good through November 1st, so, if you wanted to snag that fab deal, don’t delay!

Time is running out (that seems to be a theme in this post!) for my Blog Candy Giveaway games from THIS post, too. Another hint: There are 7 words that run through the T in the exact middle of the word search grid. Still having trouble? You’ll get one final clue later today. No worries, you will still get entries for the Bonus questions, whether or not you get the answers to #1 and #2 correct. Have fun!

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and leave your kind comments!!

~D.Ann

.

p.s. any ads on this page are placed by WordPress and are not endorsed by me.

Hello again my furry little friends and their two legged subjects! The Cat Lovers Hop continues!

This time I have a sweet gift set of a hanging 2018 calendar and a matching card:

Here’s a close-up of the calendar… I cut up a Heartfelt Creations Raindrops on Roses die cut and used the pieces to frame the pretty Furry Little Story Paper. The roses are made of vellum embossed in blue and then colored ON THE BACK with a Copic marker.

Note: when using ink to cover the bracket album, it is best to use pigment ink! (Instead of an album, I used each ‘page’ as a sturdy calendar backing.)

Materials used – calendar:

Heartfelt Creations Botanical Rose stamps and Botanical Wings dies

Heartfelt Creations Raindrops on Roses dies

Spellbinders Grand Labels One

Kaiser Craft Bracket Album

Scrapberry’s A Furry Little Story paper pack

Foray Transluscent Inkjet Vellum 30#

Docrafts 2018 calendar tabs

Tsukineko Versamark ink

Stampendous Beach embossing powders – Sky Blue

Copic marker – R39

Tsukineko Brilliance pigment ink Pearlescent Poppy

Pebbles, Inc. Pearlescent Chalks: Jewel Tones

Martha Stewart Crafts Metallic Microbeads: White Gold

Aleene’s Original Tacky Glue & Clear Gel Tacky Glue

Tombow Xtreme adhesive

Misc. Ribbon

I am entering this calendar in the following hops and challenges – click on any one of them for more information on how you can join in on the fun!

Cat Hoppers: Don’t forget Cropstop will add more prizes if she reaches 100 entries… Just sayin! Don’t forget to list the products you used from brands that she carries over at cropstop.com

The matching card uses several papers from that same Scrapberry’s collection:

Materials used – card:

Scrapberry’s A Furry Little Story paper pack

Core’dinations cardstock: blue & wine

Tombow Mono adhesive

Misc. cat button

I’m entering this card via Instagram in the Cat Lovers Hop… click HERE for more information as to how you can join the fun.

For those of you playing along Blog Candy Giveaway games from THIS post, I’m sure you’re right smack in the middle of the puzzle. It’s time for another hint: Do you know what a bunch of cows and a type of orchid have in common?! Don’t fret… You will still get entries for the Bonus questions whether or not you get the answers to #1 and #2 correct. Have fun! Oh, and it may hearten you to know that even the puzzle creator had to wrestle with this… I was just making up my ‘solutions’ post and found I lost a word in my answer key somewhere along the way in the many revisions. So, when tallying the answers to #1, I will give credit to both the answer I hinted at in the last two posts and the correct answer. A toast to imperfection! Our kitties understand – as long as we feed them on time!!

~D.Ann

.

p.s. any ads on this page are placed by WordPress and are not endorsed by me.

There will be a lot going on here on my blog today: a home decor makeover, some games, a giveaway, a guest designer, a sci-fi mash-up… Wait! Did I say games and a giveaway?!! Be sure to read all the way to to bottom to find out the details!

Lest’s start out with my first project for today – a home decor makeover:

BTW: have you ever wondered the difference between gray and grey? The easiest way to remember: grAy is the American way of spelling the color and grEy is the English way of spelling it. Now, if I could just keep my hair from learning that word no matter how it’s spelled….

I’m playing along with the Cat Lovers Hop – Hurry and click HERE for more information on how you can join the fun before it’s all over for another year!

And now, the part you’ve all been waiting for! I have a fun game for you to play… a cat themed word search! Now, you may not be into word searches, but this one may be worth your while… finding the answers will get you entries to the giveaway!

You may want to right click on the puzzle, copy it and print it out to better play with it. Here’s how to play:

Find all the words that contain the letters C-A-T in order. Draw a line through each word. Words can run up, down, across, backwards and vertically, but always in a straight line. Now, not including the words CAT or CATS, how many different words did you find that have ‘CAT’ in them? (With no exact duplicates.)

Bonus: List the words (actual words, not acronyms or names) that have the letters C-A-T in reverse order in them. (Note: these words should NOT be in your list in #1 lest you lose some of the letters needed to finish #2!)

E-mail your answers to me at d.annscraftingwhims [at] gmail (dot) com. You will get one entry for the correct answer to #1, another for the correct answer to #2, and a bonus entry for each correct word listed in #3. You can get additional entries if you follow my blog (on a desktop computer, the follow button is on the right side-bar, on a smartphone, I think you have to scroll to the bottom), follow me on Instagram or follow me on Pinterest, just tell me in your e-mail which ones you follow, if any. Please let me know if you are USA or international as there will be a small prize for each. (Sorry international peeps, it has to be light to keep the postage down.)

You have until 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time, Sunday, October 29, 2017 to submit your answers via e-mail. The winners chosen using Random. org from the correct comments and bonus entries. They will be announced on a blog post on Monday, October 30, 2017 – hopefully, before noon PACIFIC time. I will also post the solutions in case you didn’t get them. Please come back and check to see if you’re the winner. The winner will have 72 hours to contact me with their snail-mail address or another winner will be chosen.

Ok, off you go to hunt for those words!

Oh, I guess you’d like to know what you’re playing for, eh?

Continental USA peeps:

… a set of 6 Mary Engelbreit cards & envelopes; an unknown set of holographic kitty stickers (yes, the stickers are the same in both pics, just the way the light hits them changes their color – so cool!), 6 sheets of 6″x6″ paper from the My Minds Eye Meow collection, a yard of paw print ribbon and a cat shaped paperclip.

International peeps:

A sheet of Sandylion dimensional gem stickers, an unknown set of holographic kitty stickers (yes, the stickers are the same in both pics, just the way the light hits them changes their color – so cool!), and a yard of paw print ribbon.

Stay tuned…. I have a guest blogger coming up later today with a very special kitty project!

~D.Ann

.

p.s. any ads on this page are placed by WordPress and are not endorsed by me.

Stamping the cube of Post-It notes wasn’t too difficult… just had to grasp them firmly so the individual pads wouldn’t slide apart! (they did separate just a little when I attached them to my background. Since I used an ultra strong adhesive, They’re not budging now!

I still giggle at the joke of ‘If friends were COFFEE (instead of FLOWERS), I’d pick you’! FYI, the backboard die cut is out of 2000# cardstock and I only put the cutting plate up to the edge of the die right before the pattern started again, so it wouldn’t cut the bottom. Then I took a paper cutter and cut straight on down 4 additional inches to wrap it behind and under the stack for stability.